Wednesday, April 01, 2015

APRIL FOOL'S DAY

This is how Jeff Koons (really and truly) explains his work of art, above:

This painting has a sexualized sense of nature. There's reference to nineteenth-century French painting, and Courbet, and to Louis Elishemius, a twentieth-century American who has absolutely influenced me over the last couple of years. There's also a reflective silver line drawing that's what I think would be Cy Twombley's take on Courbet's Origin of the World-- but a little more primal. The image itself comes from a close-up of a couple in the act of making love. It's a penetration. Laid on top of that, with the exact same cropping, is an image of a waterfall. So you have the greens and the nature colors and then in the center of the waterfall, you have white and the flesh of the couple. It makes reference to Marcel Duchamp's Etant Donnes. Sexuality is something that overtakes you. The gesture that you end up making in the world happens through instinct and all these desires for procreation. The most beautiful aesthetics, the greatest beauty, is the acceptance of nature and of how things function. When I say beauty, I mean just true reality and openness to everything.

Cy Twombly's scribbles have a nicer rhythm and some calligraphic flavor, all those masses of loops seem to be designed inside the picture frame so they appear charming and ethereal. While Koons's doodles seem crude in a way an inexperienced child would do them and he just threw them somewhere on top of everything without feeling or thinking. Unless we can call that silly explanation thinking.

Thank you for your suggestions. Will definitely try the Orlando one. But guess what this weekend I was going to the public library in downtown and at the museum of arts Tampa there was an Norman Rockwell exhibit! About 75 - 100 originals on display. I stayed there till I could stand up no more.I was particularly impressed by an illustration he did when he was 20.

Lubalin may have done that to get closer to the board because the crossbar was blocking his chair from pulling in as far as he liked. Its pretty evident that the chair's right side is further in. I've done things like that myself.